


What if the Circus Didn't Teach Me the Alphabet?

by zarabithia



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 17:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1477276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The a/u in which Kate was the first Hawkeye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What if the Circus Didn't Teach Me the Alphabet?

Kate doesn’t expect the kid to stay.

She doesn’t do sidekicks, after all. That’s really much more Eli and Billy’s territory. They live for the thrill of passing on a heritage,  
but this has never been in Kate’s plans.

Her penthouse has barely withstood Tommy, after all, and Tommy is a grown man - admittedly, Eli and David don’t think so, but technically, he is.

Technically.

The point is that the grown men on the Avengers give Kate enough of a headache, and her poor house can barely withstand the grown men in her life. Kate’s not sure that she or her penthouse are going to survive this teenage circus brat. 

But he walks into her life one day -

(Okay, that’s a lie. He walks into her father’s life one day, in the middle of a half-hearted robbery. But technically, Barton is messing with her potential inheritance, so it does count as walking into her life.)

\- So he walks into her life one day and it’s plain to see that he needs her. And before she knows it, this little thief is sitting on her couch, mocking her hummus and drinking her coffee out of a pot.

So she brings home the designer Hawkeye cups from Teddy and Billy’s store - the ones whose proceeds go to RAINN - and tells him that his is the one with the little h and hers is the one with the capital H. 

"What if they didn’t teach me the alphabet in the circus?" he says, because he is a smartass, as he continues to drink out of the pot.

"We’ll fix that up when we get that GED taken care of, Hawkguy," she retorts. 

His eyes roll so hard he can probably see optic nerves, and only a decade of dealing with Tommy keeps Kate from throwing her bagel at him. “Just because you’re all I got, lady, doesn’t mean that you get to pretend to be my mom.”

"I don’t want to be anyone’s mom," she says, and it’s true.

"No MILF jokes in my future, then, Hawkeye?" he snarks, and she thinks about kicking him out.

A week later, he brings home a shaggy, wet, bleeding dog and she thinks about kicking him out again.

They both stay.


End file.
